Unlike other nations, no American soldiers have ever died defending our flag. What they gave all to defend is the Constitution, and it cheapens the sacrifice of our soldiers to claim that they risked, or lost, their precious lives for a mere symbolic piece of cloth. They did not. They served the idea of self-government, and were willing to risk their lives to defend the ideals of our Republic as set down in writing. They defended the freedom to disagree. Including the freedom to, yes, burn the symbol of all we hold true.

Burning the flag as an act of protest, however offensive it may be to veterans like myself who offered to place ourselves between it and its enemies, is an inherently political statement. I don't believe that our govenment should go any farther down the road of regulating our political speech.

The Citizens Flag Alliance, a group pushing for the Senate this week to pass a flag-burning amendment to the Constitution, just reported an alarming, 33 percent increase in the number of flag-desecration incidents this year.

If protesters decide that they can best communicate their points with a burning flag, so be it. I will boo them loudly and go about my business knowing that they have likely turned off 95 percent of people who might otherwise listen to what they say.

If Republicans hate Cuba, China, Iran, and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq – Why do they want the United States to be so much like them?

"If a jerk burns a flag, America is not threatened. If a jerk burns a flag, democracy is not under siege. If a jerk burns a flag, freedom is not at riskand we are not threatened.My colleagues, we are offended; and to change our Constitution because someone offends us is, in itself, unconscionable,"